CSFF Archives - Page 7 of 42

Monsters Aren’t Imaginary – A CSFF Tour Special Report

by Jason Joyner | Mar 27, 2012 | Blog, CSFF, Imaginary Jesus, Matt Mikalatos, monsters, Night of the Living Dead Christian, zombies as literature

Yesterday I asked if you were ready.

If you’re back today, I’m assuming you are.

The CSFF Tour is featuring a book with a very intriguing title. Night Of The Living Dead Christian.

You’d think it would be the most interesting book we’ve ever featured. However, it has to settle for a tie.

The tie is with a book called My Imaginary Jesus (known then as Imaginary Jesus), which features time travel, sledding mishaps, and talking donkeys chasing after the real Jesus among a multitude of fake ones.

Oh, and they’re both by the same ~~warped~~ mind: Matt Mikalatos*.

These books are unique. They are fiction, but the main character is Matt himself, inserted into a wacky world where anything can happen. They preach more than any other novel you’ll read this year, but they are so fun you won’t really notice. Matt manages to poke fun and satirize the Church, our religious goofiness, and himself whle making the reader laugh. Then the reader will be asking what kind of monster they could be.

In Night Of The Living Dead Christian, intrepid Matt is the lone Neighborhood Watchman for his street. After happening upon a mad scientist, his android sidekick, and a horde of zombies, he finally ends up doing something interesting.

He meets a Lutheran werewolf. His name: Luther Anne Martin.

Luther seems like a perfectly decent fellow. Other than he’s a Lutheran but not a Christian. He has a wife and daughter. But they’ve moved out because Luther has an itch he can’t quite scratch. At least, not in his human form.

Lycanthropes have much sharper claws with which to itch.

Matt, being the helpful fellow he is, and being stuck in his own story, tries to help Luther make a transformation for good rather than evil. Along the way they dodge well-dressed zombies, a reluctant vampire, and Matt’s pregnant wife in their quest.

Confused? Yeah, you’re just going to have to read it.

I’ll have more on the meat of the story tomorrow, but how about a fun little quiz? What type of monster would you be out of the list below? Leave a comment explaining your choice. I promise I’ll…try to think up something clever for the type that gets the most votes. [And Matt has even provided a guide to help your choice. Sweet!]

Vampire
Werewolf
Gargantuan
Mummy
Invisible Person
Mad Scientist
Troll
Robot (Androids and Cyborgs count too)
Sasquatches
Troll
Zombie

For even more interactive fun, Becky Miller lists all the current posts for the CSFF Tour at her website. So hurry on over and see what others are saying.

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*Nobody noticed my dangling asterix. When I crossed through warped in describing Matt, I realized it takes one to know one…
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CSFF Tour Day 3 – The Realms Thereunder

by Jason Joyner | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog, CSFF, reviews, Ross Lawhead, speculative fiction, The Realms Thereunder

I left off yesterday’s post with somewhat of a cliffhanger.

I was still trying to finish the book we are touring.

I received a couple of exhortations (thanks Keenan and Eve). I managed to finish this morning on the commute. No, I wasn’t driving.

However, I have one more confession. I have avoided most posts on our feature book, The Realms Thereunder, by Ross Lawhead. One of the best parts of the CSFF Tour is the camaraderie and intelligent discussion on the various books. However, sometimes I find my opinion shifting in reading other blogs. I didn’t want to do that this time, to see if my feeling is unique and to keep it honest.

Unfortunately, my honest opinion is that I didn’t really like the book.

I wanted to. I was very excited for this tour, and jumped right into it when it arrived. Yesterday I mentioned that Ross’s father is acclaimed fantasy author Stephen Lawhead. I’m a big fan of the elder Lawhead, so I knew I had some expectations going in. I tried to keep them under wraps, but I’m also giving the full disclosure here.

As with most stories, there are elements that were enjoyable. Ross is as imaginative as his father, and he pictures a series of realms connected to our own, with the passages that connected the worlds starting to open and bleed into each other. He uses an Anglo-Saxon base for his main underground realm, which is different enough from the common Celtic fantasy troupe to make it stand out, yet familiar to fantasy fans.

He uses a varied structure that others on the tour have commented on. He tells the story of Daniel and Freya both in modern times and when they were 13 and lost as schoolkids for months while in an underground realm. The back and forth of time was not difficult for me to follow.

In particular, 13 year old Freya is encouraged in an encounter with an elderly woman who acted like one of the Fates weaving everyone’s destiny into a grand tapestry. The language and ideas presented there were a real high point for me.

There was just too much that distracted me from his overall story thrust. I think a major problem was that I didn’t enjoy his “voice,” the way he writes. This is very subjective, and his voice never won me over. We’ve all had authors we love, but when we recommend them to friends, we are disappointed when they don’t enjoy it as much as we do. That may be the main problem, so take it for what it is worth.

Other aspects of the writing were more objectively an issue for me. He shifted point of view between his main characters all the time. I’ve heard many say this is something only another writer would complain about, but I’ve seen omniscient POV done in such a way it wasn’t a distraction, but it constantly threw me here. There were large sections of the book that I don’t feel added much to the story progression or world-building. I would argue that some of these sections could be curtailed and tighten the flow of the plot. Perhaps they become significant in later books, but I didn’t detect any of that occuring.

I didn’t even have much empathy for the characters. They were not developed deep enough, so I didn’t have much connection to them.

It disappoints me to give a negative review. I enjoy fantasy and I really wanted to like this book. I also feel that an honest opinion is better than papering over my differences with the book to go along with the crowd. I hope any readers today will check out Becky Miller’s blog, where she keeps tabs on all of the posts for this tour, and read what others are saying. I am only one voice, and I plan on checking them out now myself.

Legal Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book without obligation for a positive review in return, which I think is evident.
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